


Red Lights On The Run

by ashtraythief



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Athletes, Don't copy to another site, Grumpy Jensen, Hooker Jared, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Prostitution, Sharing a Bed, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, Topping from the Bottom, mentions of hurt Jared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-19 10:03:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22009228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: On his way home for the Holiday, Jensen gets stuck in a snowstorm. He seeks shelter in a roadside whorehouse, which is not his kind of thing and he’s definitely not going to pay for sex. Only one of the hookers turns out to be exactly his kind of thing. And when the power shuts off, there’s only one bed...(Holiday fic with tropes galore)
Relationships: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Comments: 74
Kudos: 354
Collections: SPN J2 Xmas Exchange





	Red Lights On The Run

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brokenhighways](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenhighways/gifts).



> Written for the spn_j2_xmas exchange. Dear brokenhighways, I am so sorry that once again, I am late writing for you. I really hope you enjoy my offering this year. I decided not to do an active sports AU, because I wanted to do something different, but I still wanted to incorporate your likes, so sport adjacent sort of hooker AU in space? Happy (belated) Holidays! (If I get you for a third year, I’ll finally write you chair sex.)
> 
> Title taken from Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas.
> 
> So many thanks to iwinsoiwin for story correction and to ilikaicalie and masja_17 for being amazing betas, especially during the holiday season. Couldn’t have done it without you guys!

Fine snow whirls across the street in quick spirals, a white storm that makes it impossible to see far. Jensen drives slowly. The tiny airport where he parked his space shuttle is in the middle of a woody plateau and the roads are treacherous, especially when it’s cold or wet. Jensen doesn’t want to die in a hurry to get home for the Holiday.

In the distance, red brake lights flash, and off to the side of the road Jensen can see a bunch of colorful blinking lights. When he gets closer, the truck before him has stopped in the middle of the road. Jensen curses and hits the breaks.

The truck has stopped next to an old, junky heap of a spaceship parked far off to the right side. Judging by how far it’s sunken into the ground it’s been there for at least a decade. It’s a big, bulky, silver metal hull with scuttle windows and a few wayward antennas flapping in the wind, decorated all over in a haphazard pattern with sparkling lights and flashing a neon sign in the driveway, reading “take a break before the end of the road.” Hookers then.

Jensen sighs. He’s happy the snow is so thick; if anyone recognized him it would not be good for his reputation. Universe famous freestyle scaler Jensen Ackles caught frequenting a roadside breakhouse. It’s not illegal, at least not here on Cairl, but he has a reputation as a clean athlete and his sponsors would have his head if he were seen in an establishment like this. Screw his sponsors, Dani would never let him hear the end of it. And she’s one hell of a manager, so he usually takes her advice.

He turns the wheel of his truck to get around the one in front of him when there’s a knock on his window. Jensen startles and looks to his left, into a dimpled smile and fox tilted eyes.

Fuck, the kid is pretty. And judging by the low collar of his red pullover that’s revealing his collarbones and the way he leans down to Jensen’s truck, shiny strands of brown hair hanging into his face, he’s a hooker.

Jensen should leave. But it’s snowing out there and the kid must be freezing, and it would be just rude to leave him standing there.

Jensen presses the button to roll down the window.

“Hey there,” the kid says. His voice sounds mature, and despite the pointy chin, cute smile, and the bowl cut, he’s probably more early twenties than late teens.

“Look, I’m not looking for a break,” Jensen says. He reaches into the middle console and pulls out one of his smaller money cards. “Just... get yourself something to eat.”

The kid looks a little on the thin side.

The kid takes the card. His hands are surprisingly big, and he has long, strong fingers. Jensen zeros in on his index finger, catches a ragged scar running along the side. Jensen has a few of those too.

When the kid licks his wide, pink lips, Jensen feels a little warmer.

“You could keep me company while I eat.” The kid’s voice is dripping with innuendo. “Or you know, eat with me.”

Jensen shakes his head, puts his fingers on the window control button. “Sorry, kid. Enjoy the Holiday.”

The kid’s face falls in disappointment, but he steps back. Jensen watches him walk across the front of his truck, long legs wrapped in tight, light gray pants. His arms clutch the dark red oversized pullover tighter to his body, the torn collar now exposing half of his shoulder. Jensen finger’s twitch. The kid’s shoulders are broad and more muscled than he would have assumed. Like he used to work out. Like he used to climb.

Jensen shakes his head and pulls his truck around the one still idling in the middle of the road in front of him. Jensen has a Holiday dinner to attend. His family is back on earth and he hasn’t been home for the last two Holidays, so it’s high time. Besides, he does miss his grandma’s Holiday roast.

He drives for another five minutes when he’s stopped by a maintenance truck and a barricade across the street.

“Storm knocked over a bunch of trees,” the maintenance guy informs him when Jensen has rolled down his window. “Gonna take us at least a couple of hours to clear the road.”

Jensen curses.

“You can take the detour,” the guy says. He smirks. “But there’s a breakhouse a few minutes back, you probably passed it. That’s a good place to wait.”

Jensen sighs again. “How long is the detour?” Jensen only came out here for a training camp, he doesn’t know the planet that well.

The maintenance guy shrugs. “A couple of hours.”

“So as long as the wait for you to clear this mess up?”

Maintenance guy nods. “And the storm’s picking up too. Makes for bad driving. So like I said, there’s a breakhouse back there…”

“Thanks.”

Jensen turns his truck around. He doesn’t frequent breakhouses, doesn’t really want to be seen at one, but it’s the only open place he’s seen in the last few hours and he could use a hot cup of joe and maybe a sandwich. He curses his lack of preparation for this trip, but he’d been late, and in a hurry, with his mom’s voice in his ear, “Jensen, get home in time to decorate the tree, you hear me.”

So Jensen stops at the breakhouse. Not in the middle of the road like an idiot, he actually uses the parking lot. When he opens his car door, the kid from before is leaning against the wall of the old spaceship, half-sheltered by a rickety awning.

Jensen locks up his truck and hurries through the cold, biting wind, hand raised to protect his eyes from the snow. When he reaches the relative safety of the awning, he shakes the worst of the snow off of him.

“You’re back.” The kid sounds a little pleased and a lot smug.

Jensen rolls his eyes. “I’m just here for the food.”

The kid pushes himself off the wall, graceful and cocky, and approaches Jensen. He’s tall, taller than Jensen even by at least a couple of inches. He holds up Jensen’s money card. “How about I buy you dinner?”

Jensen is unreasonably charmed. It’s probably the dimples.

“If anyone’s gonna be buying dinner it’s gonna be me.”

The kid grins widely. It’s a little like staring right into a sun. “I’m not gonna say no to that.” He takes Jensen’s hand in his own, cold from all the time he was outside and hard with callouses. Jensen absently rubs the kid’s hand. Cold hands are dead hands his trainer Chris always says.

Inside, it’s loud and bright, but the kid drags Jensen off to a secluded booth.

“Sit,” the kid orders. “I’m gonna get us the house special.” Then he swirls around and walks towards the bar. “Yo, Chad!” he hollers. “Two specials fully loaded.”

Jensen watches his ass under the rucked up hem of his sweater, tight and round, and then forces himself to look away. He never really hooks up during training camp and it shows. He really needs to get laid. He’s spent the last few months building up the energy to train vigorously, and today he did nothing but pack, take care of some paperwork, and then drive out here. His body is thrumming with restless energy. But he can’t exactly go for a run or do an obstacle course in this weather. And faced with this kid, his body has other ideas anyway.

“Why the gloomy face?” The kid is back and puts a bottle of the local brew in front of him and a breadbasket with green spicy dip. It’s the planet’s specialty and Jensen has come to love it.

“Nothing.” Jensen reaches for the bread and dunks it into the dip.

“Careful, that’s really spicy,” the kid says. When Jensen puts a generous serving into his mouth and chews through the heat, the kid’s eyebrows rise in surprise and respect.

“So you can handle some heat.” Again, the kid’s voice is dripping with innuendo and he pointedly looks Jensen over.

“Look, kid—”

“It’s Jared.”

“Fine, Jared. I told you, I don’t do breakhouses. I just need some food.”

Jared raises his bottle to his mouth, wraps his pretty pink lips around the top and tilts his head back to drink. He tilts back way further than necessary, but it exposes the long line of his throat and Jensen just can’t look away while he swallows. Fuck.

Slowly, Jared puts the bottle down, hand wrapped around the slim neck, and licks his bottom lip. “Alright, then. Just some food...”

Jensen hesitates for a split second then says, “Dean.” His name is a little too recognizable to throw around in a whore house. The name of his childhood hamster works just as well.

Jared’s smile is slow and sultry, like he’s won something. “Alright then, Dean.”

Jensen wants to hear him say his real name like that.

Thankfully that moment a short brunette comes over with a giant tray laden with food. Two big bowls of soup, two plates with a cut of meat and some veggie mush. Another basket with bread, more dip.

“That’s… a lot of food,” Jensen says slowly.

Jared shrugged. “You look hungry.” His eyes trail over Jensen’s arms, up to his shoulders. “And like you can eat.”

After a month of training, Jensen has definitely put on some more muscle, especially on his shoulders and his upper arms. So yeah, he needs energy. But he’s not the one who looks like a half-starved puppy.

Jensen raises an eyebrow at Jared. “Look who’s talking. You need to put on at least twenty pounds.”

Jared reaches for a slice of bread. “Well, I don’t always get this lucky.”

The words hit Jensen like a punch to the gut and he’s viciously reminded that Jared relies on people paying for his body to feed himself.

“Well, you are now,” Jensen says hoarsely and clears his throat. “Eat.”

Jared cocks his head, eyes Jensen curiously, but then digs in. Jensen slowly reaches for a spoon and starts to eat the soup. The food is pretty good considering the establishment they’re in.

“Chad’s a surprisingly good cook,” Jared says apropos of nothing.

“Surprisingly?” Jensen asks.

Jared gives a small smile. “It would be surprising if you knew him.”

They continue to eat in silence.

“So, Dean,” Jared says when he has all but inhaled his main course. “What brings you out here?”

“Just trying to get to the airstrip,” Jensen says. “Flying home for the Holiday.”

“Not from around here, huh?”

“What gave me away?” Jensen asks.

Jared smiles. “Your dialect, for one. Don’t get me wrong, that slight drawly thing you’ve got going on is insanely sexy, but you don’t sound like people around here.”

“Neither do you,” Jensen says. Jared speaks a clear, generic version of high Galactic. People of Cairl have a more nasal accent.

Jared smiles, but it’s empty. Dimple-less. “Yeah, well. We’re all travelers.”

“I guess we are.”

The silence is tense for a moment, then Jared laughs, bright and fake. Like a hooker. “So, Dean, still want to fly out of here tonight? Storm’s getting worse.”

Jensen looks outside, into the intensifying storm. It’s like a white wall out there, the snow moving too quickly to make out the individual flakes. Even if the maintenance guy did clear the road, the drive out to the hangar would be nigh impossible. And Jensen isn’t the most experienced driver in the snow. He can master a mountain in the snow, no problem—he can scale any mountain in any weather—but he prefers driving on clear roads.

“You guys rent out rooms?”

Jared grins. “What do you think?”

Jensen rolls his eyes. “Without company.”

Theatrically, Jared puts a hand on his chest. “I’m hurt. And yeah, usually, but tonight I think they’re all full. You can have my bed though.” When he catches Jensen’s expression, it’s Jared’s turn to roll his eyes. “Without me in it, if you’re that repulsed by me.”

Jensen points a fork at him. “Fishing for compliments doesn’t suit you. You know how pretty you are.”

For a moment, Jared smiles, then he cocks his head curiously. “Then why not?”

“It’s just not my thing.”

Jared’s lips twitch into a barely-there smile. “But I am?”

“You’re really an incorrigible flirt.”

“Comes with the job.”

“There’s no job here with me.”

Jared shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe I just like messing with you. Maybe you’re kinda cute when you’re grumpy.”

“I’m not cute,” Jensen grumbles.

“Adorable,” Jared says with a laugh.

The brunette reappears with a big plate of pastries and candies and some chocolate covered fruit. “Enjoy,” she says with a wink before clearing their dishes and disappearing again.

The candy is not as good as his grandma makes, but grandma Ackles is also famous for her desserts, so Jensen can’t hold it against them.

Jared entertains him with stories from the kitchen, about Chad, the unlikely cook, and Genevieve, the snarky server. Jensen thinks that most of these stories must be made up even though Jared swears up and down they’re all true. Either way, they’re entertaining and Jared is a great storyteller.

When the dessert plate is empty, Jared shows him upstairs. Up on the landing, they go down the long dark corridor, spaceship design hidden under hanging drapes and tapestries from all over the galaxy with mismatching patterns and colors. They stop at the door at the far end and Jared motions to the card reader next to the door. “Standard entrance fee, but I won’t charge you for anything else.”

Jensen slides a money card through it and the door beeps and opens.

The room is fairly unremarkable, considering the design of the rest of the place. A big bed dominates one wall, but despite the many colorful pillows, the sheets are dark and unremarkable. The walls are painted dark blue and there’s a very big sturdy armchair under the window, a waist-high dresser up against a wall and a full-body mirror on the closet door next to it.

“This is a surprisingly tame design.”

Jared lifts a shoulder. “Well, I’m the main attraction here. Usually, people don’t look at the furniture.”

Jensen bites his tongue not to agree out loud.

“If you need an extra blanket there’s some in the closet,” Jared says. “But no touching any of the toys, they’re all disinfected.”

“You’re leaving?” Jensen asks surprised.

“Well, yeah.” Jared gives him a look. “The door fee isn’t enough for a night, I still need to work.”

“No,” Jensen says without thinking about it. He knows it’s just one night, he knows he can’t change any of this, but the thought of Jared going out there while Jensen sleeps in his bed… “What do you usually make in a night?”

Jared’s brows jump up. “Why?”

“Stay,” Jensen says. “The bed’s big enough for two.”

“Just like that? You’re going to pay me for doing nothing?”

“Well, you could tell me more stories about this insane cook who I still don’t believe is real.”

Jared laughs, bright and real. “Alright then.”

Jensen feels like he’s won something. He clears his throat before this insane thought shows on his face.

“Do you have a bathroom?”

Jared nods and opens the door next to the closet.

Jensen hands him his money card, tells him to charge his usual all night haul and then goes into the bathroom. He washes his hands and face in Jared’s small sink. There’s even a spare toothbrush, still freshly wrapped. When he’s done, Jared waits for him sitting propped up against the headboard, long legs stretched out on top of the covers.

“You mind if I stretch?” Jensen asks. He’s had a long day driving and packing, and he’s feeling like his muscles and tendons have shrunken like a wool pullover in the dryer.

“Knock yourself out.”

Jensen takes off his shoes and overcoat. In pants and a henley, he slowly goes through his evening routine. Arms, torso, and some legs standing up, sitting down for shoulders and neck, on all fours for his back. He can feel Jared’s eyes on him, but he ignores it.

Eventually, he’s done. Hands on the floor, he walks his feet up to them, until his toes are bumping up against his hands, face pressed to his knees. Then he slowly rolls himself upright, stretches his arms up to the ceiling, wiggles his wrists and fingers and is done.

Jared’s staring at him.

“What?”

“You’re a scaler,” Jared blurts out.

Jensen freezes.

“I’m sorry,” Jared says and his cheeks color.

“No, I’m just… how do you know that?”

Jared nervously licks his lips. “The routine. It’s… it’s a classic scaler stretch.”

Jensen just nods. How does Jared know that? It’s not that their training is top secret, but not a lot of people care about the details. Then Jensen remembers the scar on Jared’s hand, the ragged line like he lost his grip and cut himself on a rough mountainside.

“You used to scale too.” It’s a statement, not a question.

Jared nods. He pulls his sweater tighter around him. “A long time ago.”

“You’re not that old.”

“Yeah, well, feels like it,” Jared says harshly.

“I’m sorry.” Jensen feels like shit. There are a lot of career-ending injuries. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Jared waves him off. “It’s okay.”

“You wanna tell me?” Jensen offers.

Jared snorts. “My sob story is not sexy.”

“Well, that’s not what I’m here for, remember?”

“It’s also not funny or entertaining,” Jared says petulantly, and he looks very young all of a sudden.

Jensen sits down on the bed. “I get if you don’t want to talk about it. But I’ll listen if you do. I’d love to hear your story.”

Jared huffs and looks up at the ceiling. Jensen lies back on the bed and waits.

When Jared doesn’t speak, Jensen does.

“I always loved to climb. Trees, rocks, houses. The more difficult, the better. Drove my parents nuts.” He lets out a laugh at the memory of their faces. “My grandma lived in the mountains and I would spend every summer with her and every day, I was out there. She was the one who paid for me to go to a school with a good scaling program.”

He pauses, waits. Nothing. He reaches to the side of the bed, dims the lights.

“I never got the bulk for any of the speed competitions. Which kind of sucked, because that was my school’s focus and where all the cool kids were at. But I was determined. So I went the technical route.”

Jared makes a sound, so Jensen pauses. Waits. Waits a little longer.

“I liked to sprint,” Jared finally says. “Never had the patience for ten-hour scales.”

“You have the build of a sprinter too,” Jensen says.

“Yeah, well.” Jared falls quiet again.

“Did you come out here to train?” Jensen asks carefully. “I did.”

“Yeah,” Jared says slowly, quietly. “I got a scholarship, right out of high school. I didn’t really have any family, so it didn’t matter that it was so far away from earth.”

Jensen’s heart clenches. He has a big family and even though they’re overbearing and can be super annoying, he loves them.

“Anyway,” Jared says, trying for light but Jensen hears the strain under it. “Halfway through my first year, I had a bad fall and bumped against the rock. Tore up my hand, broke a leg. It healed, but I was out of commission for four months and the coach said I’d fallen so far behind, it wasn’t worth it. I could restart a year later, but my scholarship wouldn’t cover it. I had spent all my money to come here, so I couldn’t even get off this damn planet.” Jared lets out a harsh laugh. “And there’s not a lot of ways to make money out here.”

“I’m sorry,” Jensen says quietly even though he knows there’s really nothing he can say here.

“It’s alright,” Jared says, and he does a good job of covering up any bitterness. “The sport is always a risk.”

It is. The rate of injuries is pretty high. Still.

“Ever thought about going back in?”

“Nah,” Jared says and Jensen can hear the lie. “Besides, I could never leave this job.”

“This job?” Jensen asks dubiously.

Jared turns on his side, smiles at Jensen. Jensen has only known the kid for a couple of hours, but he already knows that this is his fake hooker smile.

“You meet the most interesting people.”

Jensen gives him an unimpressed look.

Jared laughs, delighted. “Like mysterious, grumpy, green-eyed scalers who dislike hookers. And I do get the best food on this planet. I swear, just last week, Chad made his planet-famous mountain stew.”

Jared clearly wants to change topics, and Jensen understands. A ruined career is nothing anyone wants to dwell on. So he goes along with it. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s Chad’s planet-famous mountain stew? Because I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been here for three months.”

“Clearly, you hang out with the wrong people,” Jared says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Chad uses all kinds of veggies, but the secret ingredient is worla eggs.”

Jensen’s brows shoot up. Worlas are small bird-like creatures with big soft beaks and they drool worse than any earth dog. No one voluntarily gets close to them, but once when he was training outdoors, a flock of worlas flew past him and drenched him in their stinky slobber.

“So you’ve seen worlas,” Jared says.

Jensen pulls a face. “I got drenched in worla slobber once when I was hanging off a training wall.”

Jared breaks out in laughter, claps his hands together and almost topples over.

“It’s not that funny,” Jensen grumbles.

Jared gasps for breath. “Actually, it is. Also your face. Such an adorable grumpy face.”

Jensen thinks his face goes probably even more grumpy, but he’s also feeling inordinately pleased that he could make Jared laugh like that.

Eventually, Jared stops laughing, is still smiling ridiculously pretty, and continues his story. “Anyway, so there used to be this guy here, worked as a bouncer who used to be some kind of big shot bounty hunter, and he used to get Chad his eggs. He left a couple of months ago and so I needed to help Chad get the eggs. Preferably without getting drenched in their slobber, because, as you know, that stink clings to you forever.”

Jensen had showered twice, had washed his hair five times with a special shampoo and the scent had still clung to his hair for days.

“It’s pretty gross,” Jensen says.

Jared nods. “And not good for business. So Chad and I got some old space suits to wear over our clothes, but they didn’t have helmets so we put on hats and welding glasses.”

Jensen snorts. “I’m sure that looked great.”

“Sexy,” Jared says decidedly. “It looked sexy. Well, on me anyway. Chad not so much.”

“You’d probably make a trash bag look sexy,” Jensen says dryly.

Jared’s face lights up in a smile.

Dammit. Jensen needs to stop flirting with Jared like this is just a regular conversation. He doesn’t want to give Jared the wrong impression about what Jensen is paying for here. It’s just for the bed.

“So, you armed yourself,” Jensen says to prompt the story along.

“Yes, we did,” Jared says, and his voice is warm, like he’s happy, like Jensen did something right. “And we went out back to the hills. There’s a pretty big worla nesting ground. Anyway, Chad takes a big pan up there with him and starts beating it and yelling. The worlas all go after him and he keeps screaming and waving the pan around and runs down the hill, but then he stumbles and just goes flying.” Jared waves his arm in a big circle and is laughing at the memory. “And I can hear him scream, like really scream, and he goes down like a wet blanket and then—”

There’s a whizzing sound and suddenly they’re sitting in the dark.

“What the fuck?” Jensen can’t see anything. There’s no light. Even the blinking lights outside are dead.

“Fucking piece-of-shit generator,” Jared grumbles. “That’s the second time this month.”

Jensen hears rustling and the mattress wobbles.

“I’m going to go check, see if they need a hand with the back-up generator.” Jared rummages around next to the bed, opens a drawer. More sounds and then the warm light of a candle flame fills the room. “Be right back.”

Jensen tries to relax in the dark quiet of the room, but his thoughts keep going back to Jared’s story. How he had a bad fall, how his coach had basically banned him from training after a four-month break. It’s weird. It must have been a really bad fall. But not to allow Jared a shot to try again was just weird. And Jensen is curious.

He pulls out his tablet and logs into the training platform. Most videos are saved for all athletes to see. Jensen feels a little bad snooping, but he needs to know. And it’s not like Jared hasn’t told him.

It doesn’t take him long to find the footage of Jared’s fall.

Jared’s a good climber, very energetic. But he’s high up on a long, slow wall. Just before the top, he slips, rips his hand open, twists in the safety rope and bounces against the wall. No body tension, almost no defense when he crashes against the wall. Jared’s exhausted. It’s painful to watch and a slow dark anger coils in Jensen. The trainer pushed Jared way past his limit. On a wall that didn’t even fit his climbing style.

Jensen goes searching for other videos, but all of them have Jared on the high, slow walls. It’s what Jensen does, the most difficult climbs, where you sometimes hang for minutes in one position, mentally mapping out your path because if you choose the wrong way you could get stuck. But whenever Jared encounters a clear path, he’s quicker than anyone else. Jared’s strong and energetic. Jared is a sprinter. He had no business training for a slow, technical route. It’s the highest discipline, sure, but you can’t turn a sprinter into a long-distance runner and you can’t turn a speed climber into a technician.

Angrily, Jensen shuts off his tablet. Jared could have had a perfectly good career if his trainer hadn’t been blind or stupid.

The door bangs open and Jared comes in. “Sorry, but the generator is out. We’ll be in the dark until morning.”

“It’s fine,” Jensen says, trying to calm his voice. “We’ll be sleeping anyway.”

In the weak light of the candle, Jared pulls a grimace.

“What?” Jensen asks, sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Everything is out, including the heat,” Jared says while he goes over to a closet and rummages around for more blankets. A pink, fuzzy one, a purple satin one, and a heavy white fur.

“Don’t worry, they’re all freshly washed,” Jared says. “But this ship has so many cracks, it doesn’t contain heat well. So it’s gonna get pretty cold in here.”

“Just give me the fur, and take the rest, I’ll be fine.”

Jared’s eyebrows shoot up. “It’s gonna be below zero tonight. Like negative thirty. Below zero.”

Another gust of wind hits the walls, the room shakes and on cue, the temperature sinks notably.

“We can go downstairs and sleep there,” Jared says. “Chad’s gonna light up the big fireplace and put some burning pans on the tables and that'll make it fairly bearable."

“It sounds like there’s a but coming.”

Jared shrugs. “If you want something soft to sleep on we need to carry down the mattress otherwise it's sleeping on the floor.”

Jensen makes a face.

Inexplicably, Jared’s mouth twitches into a smile before he says, “And of course we'd have to share with about fifty other snoring, stinking people. Because I can guarantee you that no one else will offer their customers the cuddling for warmth option.”

“I’m not a customer,” Jensen protests. “I’m just paying for the bed.”

“And for me not to do any work,” Jared says pointedly, “which makes you a customer. Granted, probably the weirdest customer I ever had but a customer nonetheless.”

“If I am a customer then,” Jensen says darkly, “why are you offering me the cuddling for warmth option?"

“Because you don’t smell bad,” Jared says matter of fact. “And no sound you make can be as bad as Chad’s snoring.” Jared shudders exaggeratedly. Then he gives Jensen a cheeky smile. “Besides, you’re cute when you’re grumpy and body heat is still the best option in this weather.”

“Fuck,” Jensen says. “Fine.”

It’s not that he’s averse to cuddling with Jared, but he’s not actually a masochist. And touching Jared without actually getting to touch him will be a special kind of torture. Jensen takes off his henley, and his pants, leaving him in dark briefs and a thin tank top. Jared watches him, mouth half-open.

“It’s easier to share body heat without isolating materials,” Jensen says.

Jared laughs. “I’m not complaining.”

Jensen rolls his eyes and takes the pink fuzzy blanket and the purple satin one from Jared’s arms and puts them on top of the bed. He climbs in under the heavy blankets.

“Bring the fur and get in. But lose the pants.”

Jared does what he’s told. Jensen doesn’t know whether it’s on purpose, but Jared turns away while pulling off his oversized pullover. Underneath he's all lean muscles and strong bone structure. He’s not as thin as Jensen had feared, still has muscles from years of training, but Jensen still wants to feed him protein meals.

When Jared pulls down his pants, he reveals tight black underwear that barely covers his ass. His really really tight, round ass. Jensen can’t look away.

Naturally, when Jared twists around, he catches Jensen staring.

With a cocky grin, Jared puts a hand on his hip. “We can still amend our deal.”

Jensen ignores the mouthwatering bulge in Jared’s briefs, ignores his flat stomach and toned chest, ignores that he finds Jared’s lean body both hot and kind of endearing and wants to first fuck him and then feed him.

“Get in,” Jensen says resolutely.

Jared’s smile goes soft which makes Jensen feel good like he said the right thing and dammit, how has this kid turned him so upside down in the last few hours?

Jared dumps the heavy fur on the bed and then crawls in under the blankets. He doesn’t stop, just scoots up to Jensen like it’s natural, and on reflex, Jensen opens his arms. Somehow Jared manages to snuggle up against him tightly, head against Jensen’s shoulder, soft and nice smelling hair pressed against Jensen’s nose. One leg pushes between Jensen’s, and a hand slips between Jensen’s torso and his arm. Jared is four inches taller than Jensen and somehow he fits into his arms like he was made to be there.

Jensen takes a deep breath to calm himself and gets a lungful of Jared’s scent, bright and clear, a hint of something citrusy maybe. Jensen forgets what he wanted to say.

In the quiet darkness, Jared relaxes against Jensen’s body. “You’re very tense,” he murmurs into Jensen’s collar bone.

“You’re very close.”

“I can move,” Jared says and for the first time, his voice sounds small, unsure.

Jensen tightens his arm around Jared, shifts to find a more comfortable position. “This is good.”

Jared’s furnace-hot in his arms and the blankets do a decent job of keeping in the heat. Jensen can feel the air outside of their cocoon slowly cooling and he reaches for the pink fuzzy blanket to pull it over the top of his head so that only his nose is outside of the blanket heap.

“You good?” Jensen asks. “Getting enough air?”

“For now.” Jared’s voice is heavy.

It’s late and Jensen is tired too. “Let’s get some sleep then.”

“Kay.” Jared’s breath evens out and he goes lax in Jensen’s arms. Jensen hasn’t shared his bed with someone like this in a long time. He doesn’t do sleepovers with his hookups and training and competitions take him all over the universe.

He hasn’t been in one place long enough for a relationship since his early career days on earth when he hadn’t qualified for all the universe-wide evens. But for the past five years, his personal life has kind of taken a back seat. Jensen is twenty-five now, he still has at least five more good years in competition, maybe even ten, but having Jared sleeping peacefully in his arms reminds him that he’d been thinking that dating might be nice. He’s pretty sure he’d need to date someone on the competition circuit, either an athlete or a trainer or staff, but so far, he hasn’t found anyone he’s interested in. Yet. He falls asleep thinking about that.

Jensen wakes suddenly. He’s mostly warm, but his face and one shoulder are cold and something just pushed into his ribs. It takes him a moment to realize Jared is wiggling around, pushing his nose outside of their blanket fort. Jensen grunts and tries to give him room, but they’re wrapped up in the blankets and all he does is create more friction.

Which Jensen’s dick is very happy about. Fuck.

When Jared twists again, his hip presses against Jensen’s dick and he has to bite back a groan.

Jared stills. “Hey there,” he says and Jensen can hear the smug smile in his voice.

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

Jensen tries to move away from Jared, but there’s nowhere to go. “I mean, I’m not sleeping with you.”

“But—”

“I told you, it’s not my kind of thing.”

“You also said I’m your kind of thing,” Jared shoots back.

“It’s still a no.”

Jared grumbles and turns away, yet still snuggles back into Jensen’s arms. “I wouldn’t take any more of your money. It wouldn’t be a job. It would just be… you and me. Two guys.” Jared takes the hand Jensen has slung around Jared’s hip. Slowly, he rubs his thumb over Jensen’s palm.

“Jared,” Jensen warns.

Jared whines, low and frustrated. “But you want to.” He pushes his ass against Jensen’s dick.

Jensen groans, can’t stop it, his hands clenching on Jared’s hip, digging into the soft flesh next to his hip bone.

“I want it too.”

“Not like this,” Jensen bites out.

“Oh my god,” Jared says, utterly frustrated, twists around in Jensen’s arms again and kisses him. His lips are warm and soft.

Usually, Jensen has excellent reflexes. Now, he’s frozen still.

“I really, really want this,” Jared says between kisses. “Can’t you feel it?”

Oh, Jensen can definitely feel it. Still. Jared’s a hooker. “But—”

“No.” Jared cuts him off with another determined kiss, kitten licks against Jensen’s bottom lip.

And Jensen’s only human. He opens his mouth to Jared, lets him explore and take, holds him tight while Jared pushes in closer.

“I want this,” Jared breathes out, bites a line down Jensen’s neck. “I have so much bad sex with weird people, I should get to have good sex with a nice guy every once in a while, don’t you think?”

“I—” Jensen can’t form words because Jared is sucking on a spot behind his ear that’s hardwired to his dick and Jensen is so hard it hurts.

“And I know you’ll make it good for me,” Jared says quietly, voice a low rumble next to Jensen’s ear.

“Jared—” Jensen tries again, but Jared gets a hand between them and around Jensen’s dick and the friction is everything he needs right now.

“Yeah,” Jared says fervently. “Just like this. That’s what I want.”

“Okay,” Jensen says finally because he believes Jared and also because he’s going crazy with want. His hands are almost shaking with the need to touch and hold on tight, and his heart is beating like crazy. “But I want you to take the lead. You show me what you want.”

Jared scoots up, bringing his face up to Jensen’s, so close their noses are touching. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

Jared explodes into action. It’s difficult under the covers, but they take their remaining clothes off— shirts and underwear—until it’s just skin on skin everywhere. Jared pushes Jensen back into the pillows and crawls on top of him, careful to stay under the blankets. A little of the cold air comes in through the top where their heads are half poking out of the blankets, but Jensen doesn’t mind. Jared is burning hot on top of him and the proximity is sending his heart racing. He’s glad for the cool air on his face. And then Jared leans in to kiss him, and Jensen doesn’t feel cold at all anymore. He gets lost in the warm, heavy weight of Jared on top of him, taut muscles moving under smooth skin that Jensen gets to explore.

“I told you,” Jensen says though he’s not quite sure why he wants to stop this when Jared lowers his head and kisses a trail down Jensen’s neck. “You don’t have to—” His voice breaks when he gasps for air.

Jared’s mouth is hot and tight on his skin and he’s doing something with his tongue that Jensen doesn’t understand, but then his brain loses all analytical function. Jared licks and sucks at Jensen’s neck and the sensitive spot where his neck meets his shoulder and Jensen can’t resist getting a hand into the wild mop of Jared’s hair, resists pushing, but can’t help holding on. He turns his head, mouths at Jared’s neck, softly bites him just under his earlobe, getting a gratifying moan that Jared only half-muffles into his shoulder.

Jared arches back in Jensen’s arms, lets Jensen kiss and bite at his throat until he can’t take it anymore and swoops in again, kisses Jensen, deep and insistent, biting at his lips and licking into his mouth. Jensen lets him, just goes with it, tries to match Jared’s rhythm and hold him tight.

The blankets slide down, but Jared starts grinding down on Jensen’s dick, so Jensen doesn’t particularly care about that, not until they fall away completely and the cold engulfs his upper body.

“Fuck.” Jared shivers. “Fucking cold.”

Jensen scoots up until he’s half-sitting up against the pillows, draws Jared in closer, rubs his hands over Jared’s broad back.

Jared hums. “Nice, but not enough.” He pulls back and reaches for the blankets. Jensen helps gather them up.

“I’ll hold the blankets,” Jared says, carefully cocooning them into pink and purple. “You get me ready. Behind you.”

Jensen reaches behind him, finds a little compartment over the bed with a bunch of condoms and a little tube. He takes the lube and he’s thankful for his steady hands. He gets distracted by Jared’s ass, fitting perfectly into his hands, so round and tight, but Jared keeps rubbing their dicks together, so Jensen gets with the program.

He opens Jared up slowly, savors his tight heat, doesn’t know how he’s not going to embarrass himself when he gets his dick inside of him but vows to try anyway.

Jared starts squirming on his fingers, making sweet, soft, breathy sounds, clutching the blanket and burying his face in Jensen's shoulder, kiss-biting at his neck. He reaches past Jensen, fumbles for the condoms until he manages to tear one open, and moves back to roll it over Jensen’s aching dick. The pressure makes Jensen snap his hips and he needs to force himself to focus on Jared. Jared, who’s opening up under his hands, who’s making impatient little noises and whose hands are clenching and unclenching on Jensen’s shoulders like he’s looking for the perfect grip on a boulder.

“‘m ready,” Jared mutters, raises himself up, tries to get on Jensen’s dick. “C’mon already.”

Jensen helps him, takes his dick and holds himself steady while Jared slowly slides down. It’s perfect heat and pressure, but even better is the way Jared’s eyes close and his head tilts back and the soft, long groan that falls from his open mouth. The candle light plays on his hair, gives it an almost golden shine.

When Jared’s all the way seated, Jensen strokes down his back and over his ass, kisses the side of his neck. “Good?”

“Hmm.” Jared moves, just a little, grinds down a little deeper. “Your dick is fucking perfect.”

“Thanks,” Jensen says around a laugh that turns into a groan because Jared starts moving for real now.

Jared braces his hands against the wall, clutching the blankets tightly and slowly moving up and down on Jensen’s cock.

Jensen keeps watching Jared, the rise of his chest and the flush of his cheeks, keeps listening to his little sounds of pleasure, the moans, and the half-formed words. He holds Jared tight, does as much of the work as he can, kisses and bites at Jared's neck. Jared likes the spot above his collar bone, gets louder when Jensen bites under his jaw and shudders when Jensen presses open-mouth kisses just below his ear. There’s a scar Jensen can feel going down Jared’s chest and he kisses that too.

Jared holds on to Jensen’s shoulder, slings one arm around Jensen’s neck, holding him tight. Jensen lets him, lets Jared lead and move them, slows down when Jared slows down and pushes up harder when Jared speeds up.

Every time Jared pulls back, cold air drifts under the blankets, and Jensen’s glad for it because he’s using all of his strength to push up into Jared’s warm body. Jared’s moving quicker now, more desperate, slamming himself down on Jensen’s cock again and again, head thrown back and sweat starting to run down his throat. Jensen leans up to lick it up, relishes the salty taste and the moan Jared makes.

“That’s it, come on,” Jensen says, bites at Jared’s sweat slick skin.

“Yes, want to.” Jared crouches down, kiss-bites at Jensen’s mouth and grinds down deeper on his dick. “Please, need it.”

Jensen reaches for Jared’s dick, starts stroking it in time with Jared’s movement and Jared goes crazy above him. He loses his rhythm, pants against his mouth, almost collapses on top of Jensen, just mindlessly pushing into his fist.

Jensen draws up a knee to get more leverage, fucks Jared harder and deeper, lets him slump down while he strokes him to completion.

Jared curses and shudders when he comes, falls apart so fucking beautifully in Jensen’s arms that Jensen can just watch his face relax in bliss. Jensen lets Jared ride it out in small, slow movements, bites back his own need to fuck into Jared until he can come. Jared hums, leans in to pepper little kisses to Jensen’s temple and cheek.

“I’m being really horrible right now, aren’t I?” He moves his hips a little more purposefully.

Jensen’s dick would agree, but he just pushes a wayward strand of hair behind Jared’s ear. “I can wait. Take your time.”

One of Jared’s big hands cradles Jensen’s face, tilts it to the side so Jared can kiss him, toe-curling thoroughly, and Jensen can’t stop his hips from snapping up.

Jared lets out a breathless huff, and pulls off of Jensen’s cock.

“Fuck. Sorry.” Jensen reaches for Jared, but he just gives him a cheeky smile.

“Nothing to be sorry for.” And then he pulls off the condom and takes Jensen’s cock in his hand.

Jensen’s back arches up, pushing his dick through the tight ring of Jared’s hand. Jared leans in, kisses up his neck and twists his hand on the upstroke, just the right pressure and Jensen’s right back at the edge.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” Jared says. “C’mon, that’s it, want you to come for me, come all over me.”

Jensen groans and holds on to Jared, rolls over until he and Jared are face to face on their sides, feels the pressure build, and fucks up into his hand. Jared keeps whispering into his ear, broken and hoarse, and Jensen comes violently, spilling hot between them.

Jared works him through it, kisses him softly, gently, and Jensen strokes his hair. Eventually Jared lays down on his chest and Jensen reaches to the side for some tissues. He cleans them up while Jared is already falling asleep in his arms. Jensen rearranges the blankets more tightly around them and goes to sleep.

Jensen wakes up again when it’s light outside. Sunlight. But the heat’s back on and the lights outside are twinkling in all the colors of a rainbow. He’s alone in the bed. Sounds of running water come from the bathroom. Jensen stretches languidly under the warm blankets. He’s a little sad he hasn’t gotten to wake up next to Jared. He wouldn’t mind a repeat performance of last night.

Jared comes out of the shower, wearing another ridiculously tight pair of pants, black this time. Jensen regrets that it was so cold they had to stay under the blanket because he really wants to see Jared spread out naked on the bed.

He’s pulling on another baggy sweatshirt, light gray and with a deep vee neck. In the light, Jensen catches another scar that he only felt last night, the long, jagged line across his lower ribs.

“Did everything heal?”

Jared looks up, startled, then he follows Jensen’s eyes to his scar. Quickly, Jared pulls down the pullover. “Yeah.”

“No lasting damage at all?” Jensen asks.

“No.”

“Then why didn’t you go back to the training camp?”

“I told you, I lost the scholarship when I was out with the injury,” Jared says, face closing off. “And without any money, they wouldn’t take me back."

Jensen still can’t believe it. A promising young athlete and they just let him go because he was injured for a couple of months? “And there was no one who could have supported you?”

Jared shook his head. “I thought I could work for a summer, half a year maybe, make enough to go back in, but whoring doesn’t exactly make you rich.”

“But—“

“Don’t you have a shuttle to catch?” Jared’s voice is hard.

“It’s going to wait for me,” Jensen says. He can’t just let this go.

“Why?”

“Because it’s my shuttle.”

Jared’s eyes almost bug out of his head. “You have your own shuttle?”

“I travel a lot for competitions.”

“Yeah, most people still take commercial flights.”

Jensen shrugs. He doesn’t really want to discuss his financial situation right now. “Look, Jared, I think you’re really talented. And it’d be a shame to waste that talent here.”

Jared’s eyes narrow. “You don’t know anything about my talent.”

“A couple of your training vids are still online in the camp’s network. I took a look.”

“You what?”

“You already told me your story,” Jensen says unapologetically. “And they’re not exactly secret.”

Jared drags a hand through his hair. “But why—“

“Because accidents like yours aren’t supposed to happen,” Jensen says angrily. “Your coach was an incompetent fuckwit. He never should’ve sent you up there. You’re a sprinter, you’re built for speed. A technical endurance course will never be your strength. And he should have seen that and he shouldn’t have sent you up there.”

Jared stares at him. Blinks. “He said.” Jared’s voice is croaky and he clears his throat. “He said that I had the strength to pull off endurance and that I could learn to be more technical. He said that was the best discipline, the heavyweight championship of scaling.” Jared looks down at his hands. “He said the technical courses are in the most exotic places. We’d get to travel the universe,” Jared said quietly. “It sounded nice.”

And there it is. Fucking asshole.

“The guy wanted a ticket off this planet,” Jensen said, barely keeping his anger in check. But it wouldn’t help to yell at Jared. “He wanted to hitch his ride to someone who’d earn the most money. You can live nicely if you train a sprinter, but the money is with a technical scaler.”

“And what, you want to train me?”

“Me?” Jensen asks surprised. “No. I’m not a trainer.”

Jared’s face closes off.

Jensen shrugs. “But that’s not the point, not if you don’t want it to be.”

Jared crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Oh? Then what is the point?”

Jensen takes a deep breath. “You don’t belong out here. I know a commercial flight back to earth costs a lot of money. Let me give you a ride.”

“In return for what?” Jared asks with narrowed eyes.

“Nothing. A few fun stories?” Jensen spreads his hands out. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to. If last night,” Jensen stops, swallows. He’d believed Jared when he said he wanted it, but there’s always the possibility that Jared was lying to get something else out of Jensen. But even if that’s the case, Jensen doesn’t care. Jared doesn’t deserve to be stuck out here. “If that was you trying to butter me up, you were successful, I guess. But I’m not going to expect anything. Just… from one scaler to another. You caught a bad break. It could have happened to anyone. It could have happened to me. So. Let me help.”

Jared chews on his bottom lip, thinks about it.

“I know every big name in the game,” Jared finally says, “and there’s no Dean who could afford his own shuttle. So. Tell me who you really are.”

Jensen rubs his neck. “So maybe I didn’t want people to hear my name in a whore house. My manager would tear me a new one.”

“Yeah, well I don’t go traveling with people who lie about their names.”

“It’s Jensen.”

Jared’s mouth falls open again. Well, Jensen finished last season winning the galactic cup in both the technical long scale and the technical extra long scale, the two most difficult disciplines.

“Shut up.”

Scalers wear masks and helmets, so unless you stick around for the interviews, you usually don’t see their faces and even then it’s only half uncovered and red from exertion. Jensen doesn’t blame Jared for not believing him.

“Sorry.”

Jared slowly shakes his head. “You’re Jensen fucking Ackles. And you came out here to Cairl to train?”

“They’re holding the galactic cup finals next year on Sheeko, and Cairl has the weather and atmosphere that comes the closest to the conditions on Sheeko,” Jensen explains.

“Okay, say I believe that,” Jared says.

“I swear, I’m not lying, I can show you my ID card.”

“But then what the hell are you doing offering _me_ a ride?” Jared asks incredulously.

“I told you, you caught a bad break. And I can help. There are enough people out there who want a piece of us, we need to stick together.”

Jared’s still shaking his head. “I can’t just pack up and leave.”

Well. It’s not Jensen’s decision.

“Look, how about this: I go take a shower, we get some breakfast, and you take the hour that’ll take to think about it.”

Jared takes another moment, then he nods. “Alright. Meet me downstairs when you’re done, same booth as yesterday.” Then he turns on his heel and leaves the room.

Well. That could have gone better.

When Jensen comes downstairs, Jared’s not in the booth. Jensen debates waiting for him, but then he watches him leaning against the bar, a couple of bowls in front of him. Jensen makes his way over to him to help.

There’s a guy standing behind the bar, blond hair dyed a fading pink, and a light and dark blue tattoo covering half his face. That has to be the infamous cook, Chad.

“Jay, if you’re not going with him, you’re even dumber than I thought you were,” Chad says.

“Thanks,” Jared says dryly.

Jensen freezes.

“And he’s a hot shot scaler, maybe he can even help you get back in!” Chad says insistently.

“That’s not—he’s not a trainer.”

“He still has money,” Chad points out.

“It’s not about the money,” Jared says angrily.

“Oh?” There’s a challenge in Chad’s voice, but his expression is fond, a little smug like he already knows the answer.

Jared rolls his eyes. “He’s nice. In that adorable grumpy way. And I know he’s one of the good guys, he does all kinds of charity stuff and he’s a really fair athlete, unlike some of the other assholes out there.”

Chad looks to Jensen, then turns back to Jared with a smirk. “Good looking too, I assume.”

Jared makes a disgusted sound. “I mean, he’s okay. If you’re into a perfect face and great body.”

Chad laughs and shoots Jensen another smirk. “The question is, is he good in bed though?”

“Of course he is,” Jared says, annoyed, like it’s the worst thing in the world.

Chad stares at Jared. “Wait, you slept with him? I thought he doesn’t do breakhouses?”

Jensen shakes himself out of his stupor. “I don’t,” he says to Chad.

Jared spins around, looking at Jensen with wide eyes. “Fuck. How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long. Need help with the bowls?”

Jared doesn’t look like he believes him, but hands him two steaming bowls anyway, takes two more and leads the way to the booth.

Chad leans over the counter. “I have friends everywhere,” he says with a bright grin. “You hurt my boy Jay and there’s no corner of the universe you can hide from me, you understand?” He raises a long kitchen knife and reverently kisses the blade. “Tristan and I will find you.”

“I just want to help,” Jensen says placatingly.

Chad presses the knife to his ear. “Tristan says he believes you. But I’ll be watching.”

Jensen just nods. You can’t argue with that kind of crazy. He follows Jared back to their booth.

“Did Chad name his knife?” Jensen asks when he sits down.

Jared’s brows draw together. “Yeah. Why?”

“No reason,” Jensen says and starts eating.

Jared doesn’t reply, just quietly eats his warm fruit mush and milk cream. Jensen leaves him to his thoughts.

When their bowls are empty, Jensen leans back. “So?”

Jared takes a deep breath. “A ride to earth. Just like that.”

Jensen nods. “From one scaler to another.”

“Say I don’t want to sleep with you again?”

“I’ll be very sad,” Jensen says earnestly, “but I’ll survive.”

The corners of Jared’s mouth twitch up in a smile. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

Jared rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine. A ride.”

Jensen can’t help but smile at him.

Jared throws his hands up, mutters “unbelievable” and then gets up. “Give me ten minutes to pack and say goodbye.”

Even with all the hyper jump points, the flight back to earth takes two days. Especially around the Holiday, everybody is heading back to the home planet and there are wait periods at the jump points. Thankfully, Jensen planned enough time and they’ll still get to earth on the morning of the Holiday, in time for Jensen to help his family put up the tree and eat the traditional Holiday roast his grandma makes.

On the first day, Jared is quiet, lost in his thoughts. He sleeps on the spare cot in the main room, and gives no inclination that he’s interested in any kind of physical contact. Jensen’s heart sinks. He really thought Jared liked him. That Jared wanted him. But maybe he saw a guy throwing around money and wanted to see what else there was to get. Jensen isn’t mad at him, not really, but it makes him feel like he took advantage. Like he still paid.

On the second day, Jared seeks him out in the cockpit.

“Looking forward to seeing your family?” Jared asks, playing with the hem of his oversized pullover. It’s green and brings out the golden flecks in his multi-colored eyes.

Jensen clears his throat. “Yeah. I haven’t been home in two years. I mean, I see them at competitions, and whenever I’m on earth for something, but this is the first Holiday in two years.”

Jared makes a non-committal sounds, then says, “tell me about them?”

Jensen is surprised, but he goes along with it. It fills the long hours anyway. Jared tells him a few more stories about Chad, and now that Jensen has met him, he has an easier time believing them.

They eat flight rations when it gets dark. They get to the second to last hyperjump and the wait time is five hours. Jensen engages the auto park.

“I’m gonna get some sleep until we can jump.”

Jared watches him like he expects him to say something, but Jensen just leaves the cockpit and goes back to his small cabin. He’s lying on his cot when there’s a knock on the door and Jared pokes his head in.

“Something wrong?” Jensen asks.

Jared shakes his head. “I just…”

Jensen waits.

“I wanted to see what you’d do,” Jared says.

“I told you—” Jensen starts, but Jared cuts him off.

“You can’t believe everything people say.”

“I’m sorry,” Jensen says and feels like shit. He really needs to learn how to stop putting his foot in his mouth around Jared.

Jared just shrugs. “It’s kind of cold out there,” he says, wrapping his arms around himself.

It’s not that cold, not really. Jensen smiles and lifts the blanket.

Jared comes into the room and closes the door behind him. On the way to the bed, he toes out of his boots, takes off his pullover and shimmies out of his pants. Nothing about his movements is especially sexy, but Jensen’s still hard by the time Jared climbs into bed with him.

“Fuck.” Jared laughs while he tries to fit in with Jensen. “This bed is tiny.”

Jared’s squirming and rubbing against Jensen’s dick, so Jensen pulls him into his arms and arranges him against his chest until he finally stops moving.

“So.” Jared draws the word out, presses a soft kiss against Jensen’s cheek.

“What do you want, Jared?” Jensen asks. “When we get back to earth? Because if you want back in, if you want me to help you out, you don’t need to butter me up.”

“You think I’m buttering you up?”

“I don’t know.”

Jared is quiet for a moment. “I don’t know what I want. I loved to climb, but after, it hurt. I went out to the hills a couple of times, after I started working at the breakhouse, but… I don’t know.”

It breaks Jensen’s heart a little, but it’s Jared’s choice. Jensen pulls him in tighter. “Okay.”

“I’m going to need some time to figure things out, I think,” Jared says and Jensen hears what he doesn’t say. _You won’t see me for a while. I’ll be gone and I don’t know if I’ll be back._

Jared tilts his head up and kisses Jensen. It’s soft and careful, a question that Jensen answers gently. Jared brings up both hands to Jensen’s shoulders, pulls until Jensen is on top of him, then raises his hips. Jared’s already hard and Jensen’s dick hardens again.

“Fuck me,” Jared says, fingers digging into Jensen’s back, short nails scratching down.

Jensen groans and does what he’s told. It’s hard and fast, desperate, with Jared clawing at him and holding him tight, biting at his shoulder and Jensen fucking Jared as deep as he can, burying himself over and over in his sweet ass until they both come and collapse on the bed, sweaty and sticky, legs entangled and lips sliding lazily against each other in almost-kisses.

Jared falls asleep, but Jensen can’t. He gets up and sits in the cockpit until they can jump. He only met Jared three days ago. And yet, he doesn’t want to let him go yet. But it’s not his choice.

They land in Austin. Jensen’s parents relocated here when he started to train because the main US training facility for freestyle scaling is here.

“Have you decided where you want to go?” Jensen asks when they’re standing in the hangar.

Jared nods. “I still have friends on earth. They’ll put me up until I can figure out what to do.”

Jensen pulls out another money card.

“No.” Jared takes a step back. “You’ve given me more than enough. And I have some money saved, I won’t starve.”

“Okay. So where are you headed?”

“I’ll take a train,” Jared says, avoids giving a real answer.

Jensen swallows his disappointment. He doesn’t say anything, just keeps standing here, hoping Jared will say something, give him something, anything.

But Jared just gives him a small smile. “Thank you. For everything.”

“This doesn’t have to be goodbye, you know,” Jensen says, a little desperate. “Even if you never scale again, we can still—”

Jared kisses him. His lips slide against Jensen’s, warm and already familiar. Then he pulls back. “I’ll see you around.”

Jensen nods. Yeah, Jared will see him. On every screen in the galaxy, as soon as the scaling season starts. And Jensen will wonder where Jared is, what happened to him. He watches as Jared walks away, long legs wrapped in tight jeans and big pullover wrapped around his body.

This Holiday is going to suck.

Jensen isn’t a moper. He still takes two extra days at home, stuffing himself with candy until Dani shows up to drag him out to the training hall.

“I don’t care how pretty he is,” Dani says, because Jensen had gotten drunk and told her the whole pathetic story, minus the fact that Jared is a scaler of course, “but you’re getting back on the wall.”

Dani dumps him with Chris, who just shakes his head and orders him to warm up slowly.

“What the fuck happened to him?” Chris asks Dani.

“You ever see that old movie, Pretty Woman?” Dani asks.

Jensen doesn’t think that there’s a lot of similarities to the movie. Except that he maybe kinda fell for a hooker. Fuck his life.

“Pretty woman is a classic,” Chris says.

“Like that,” Dani says, “just without the happy ending.”

“Ouch.” Chris turns to Jensen. “Why don’t we start you with a green wall today, Jen.”

“I’m not sick,” Jensen protests, but Dani and Chris just give him matching pitying looks.

So Jensen puts on some training gear and starts scaling the steep walls in the hall. They shift hand and footholds and Chris gives him a green, easy course to warm up and then changes the wall to level five difficulty. Jensen does competitions on anything ranging from seven to ten, so it’s an easy first wall. And up here, dangling fifty feet in the air, he can focus on where to put his hand next and doesn’t have to think about anything else.

When he comes back down, Dani’s already gone. A few people come over to say hi to him, but most of them are gathered at the end of the hall, watching someone scale one of the winding speed walls.

“What’s going on?” Jensen asks.

“New kid,” Chris says. “Well, not new. He used to be on the team, but kinda fell through the cracks when he left for a training camp. He showed up this morning and talked to Jim. Apparently he knows the kid from back in the day. Told him if he can still cut it he might have a spot for him. I think that’s his audition.”

Jensen’s heart starts beating faster. He starts walking, faster and faster, runs until he reaches the group of people, shoulders his way between them.

Jared’s up there, running up the wall like he hasn’t done anything else in the last few years. He’s fast and graceful, not as precise as he could be, but that’s nothing some good hard training couldn’t fix.

Jared reaches the top and hits the time buzzer.

“Two minutes, forty-one seconds,” Jim says.

Jensen doesn’t know the speeding walls. “That good?”

Jim looks at him with raised eyebrows. “Hello to you too, Jensen. Why yes, I am doing well and I did have a nice Holiday, how are you?”

Jensen pulls a face. “Sorry.” He claps Jim on the shoulder. “Good to see you again. So. How’s his time?”

Jim gives him a curious look. “It’s two seconds under wall record, but about a second faster than what the other first years could do.”

Jensen feels an unreasonable amount of pride.

“And you care why?” Jim asks suspiciously.

Jensen looks back up the wall, where Jared is slowly rappelling down the wall. “No reason.”

Jared lands on the floor and a couple of people walk over and congratulate him. His cheeks are flushed and a line of sweat is running down his throat. Jensen can’t help but remember how it tastes.

Jim hands Jared a towel. “I’m going to have to talk to management about finances, but you’re still just as good, boy. I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t come back. And this time, I’m keeping an eye on you.”

Jared beams at him and Jim’s grumpy face softens. “Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles, and shuffles off to his office. “Come see me later about the paperwork.”

Jared’s still smiling when he spots Jensen. He’s surprised, but then he walks over to him, small smile playing on his lips, a dimple denting his left cheek.

“You could have told me,” Jensen says.

Jared shakes his head. “I needed to do this on my own.”

“Fair enough.”

They stand there, in the middle of the training hall, staring at each other like idiots.

“Do you want to get dinner sometime?” Jensen blurts out.

Jared cocks his head. “Why? Do you want to check up on me? See that I’m not starving?”

Jensen grins. “Obviously. But I was also hoping you might like to go on a date with me? Just two guys having dinner. No strings.”

When Jared doesn’t say anything, Jensen backpedals. “I mean, obviously, you can say no. I don’t expect anything.” Fuck. He’d thought Jared had liked him, but maybe he had just buttered him up after all?

But then Jared starts smiling, slowly at first, but it spreads over his entire face, dimples blooming on both cheeks. Jensen helplessly smiles back.

“Yes,” he says with a bright grin. “Pizza. Tomorrow.” He holds out his hand. “And I’m buying.”

Jensen takes Jared’s hands, feels the calluses and the warmth. His answering grin is wide. “Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can come find me on tumblr [here](http://ashtraythief.tumblr.com/) and on twitter [here.](https://twitter.com/ashtraythief) My ask box is always open.


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